October 30
Orson Welles causes a panic with his broadcast of “War of the Worlds”, a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth. Perhaps as many as a million radio listeners believed that a real Martian invasion was under way and panic broke out across the country. – 1938.
October 31
The priest and scholar Martin Luther approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation. In his theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking payment, called indulgences, for the forgiveness of sins. – 1517.
After 14 years of labor by 400 stone masons, the Mt. Rushmore sculpture is completed in Keystone, S. D.. Between October 4, 1927, and October 31, 1941, Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers sculpt the colossal 60-foot carvings of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln to represent the first 150 years of American history. – 1941.
November 1
Nation’s first general strike for a 10-hour day; Philadelphia. – 1835.
New York City, N.Y., subway operators go on strike and an inexperienced replacement motorman crashes a five-car train and kills approximately 93 and injures 255. – 1918.
The New York Knickerbockers defeat the Toronto Huskies, 68-66, in the first NBA game. – 1946,
Two persons attempt to assassinate U.S. president Harry S Truman at his residence, the Blair House, in Washington, D.C.. Truman escaped unscathed. – 1950.
The United States detonates the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb, on Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. This new weapon was approximately 1,000 times more powerful than conventional nuclear devices. – 1952.
November 2
In the greatest upset in presidential election history, Democratic incumbent Harry S Truman defeats his Republican challenger, governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, by two million popular votes. Long before all the votes were counted, The Chicago Tribune published an early edition with the banner headline “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.” – 1948.
U.S. president Ronald Reagan signs a bill designating a federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., to be observed on the third Monday of January. – 1983.
November 3
The Soviet Union launches the first animal into space, a dog name Laika, aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. – 1957.
A Russian Army fuel truck explodes in the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan and kills an estimated 3,000 persons, mostly Soviet soldiers traveling to Kabul. – 1982
The Lebanese magazine Ash Shiraa reports that the United States has been secretly selling arms to Iran in an effort to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon. The revelation, confirmed by U.S. intelligence sources November 6, came as a shock to officials outside president Ronald Reagan’s inner circle and violated the U.S. arms embargo against Iran and president Reagan’s vow never to negotiate with terrorists. -1986.
The Chicago Cubs win their first World Series championship since 1908, defeating the Cleveland Indians, 8-7, in a thrilling Game 7 delayed by rain. The win snaps the “Billy Goat Curse,” one of the more infamous sports curses, and baseball’s longest World Series title drought of 108 years. – 2016
November 4
U.S. senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeats U.S. senator John McCain of Arizona to become the 44th U.S. president, and the first African American elected to the White House. – 2008.
November 5
Early in the morning, King James I of England learns that a plot to explode the Parliament building has been foiled when Guy Fawkes was found under the Parliament with 20 barrels of gunpowder. – 1605
More than 300 Santee Sioux are found guilty of raping and murdering Anglo settlers and are sentenced to hang. All but 38 were granted a reprieve, and the 38 were hanged simultaneously December 26 in a bizarre mass execution witnessed by a large crowd of approving Minnesotans. – 1862.
Four years after leaving the White House, former president Donald Trump is elected to a second term in office, becoming the first president to serve nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1892. – 2024.